Greta Van Fleet: The Battle At Garden’s Gate

The Battle at Garden’s Gate is the second studio album by American rock band Greta Van Fleet. It was released on April 16, 2021. The album’s first single, “My Way, Soon”, was released ahead of the album in October 2020, and topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in January 2021.

The band commenced on writing material for a second studio album directly after finishing their debut album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, which released in October 2018. As early as January 2019, bassist Sam Kiszka indicated that the album was scheduled for sometime in 2019 as well. Recording sessions occurred in a concentrated 2 month period in mid-2019. The album was recorded with musical producer Greg Kurstin, who most recently worked with Foo Fighters on Concrete and Gold and Medicine at Midnight.

Early 2019 commentary from the band on the album noted that it would thematically have a “more worldly” feel than their prior work, inspired by the band’s seeing the world through touring. Additionally, they aimed to create “an evolution to their sound” after their prior album received a lot of commentary, both positive and negative, of being very similar to the work of Led Zeppelin. Upon the reveal of the album’s name of The Battle at Garden’s Gate in late 2020, they expanded on the themes, noting that it was “definitely a biblical reference” but that the album expanded well beyond that, into the idea of “ancient civilizations” and “parallel universe[s]”. The band explores the human experience, and how religion and war affect it. The album was described as more dark, cinematic, and complicated than their prior album. Seeing dark instances of poverty and famine while touring inspired its more dire sound